- Alois Hába
Alois Hába (
June 21 ,1893 ,Vizovice –November 18 ,1973 ,Prague ) was a Czechcomposer , musical theorist and teacher. He is primarily known for hismicrotonal compositions, especially using the quarter tone scale, though he used others such as sixth-tones and twelfth-tones.Life
Hába came from musical family, his brother
Karel Hába was also a composer, and their father was a folk musician.He began to compose during the studies inKroměříž (1908-1912). He was a student of composerVítězslav Novák in 1914-15 at thePrague Conservatory , graduated with "Sonata for violin and piano". Hába studied also at the Imperial Academy of Music and the Performing Arts inVienna (1918-1920) (among his teachers wasRichard Stöhr ), and inBerlin 1920-1922). In 1920, as a student ofFranz Schreker , he composed his first quarter-tone work - "String Quartet No. 2". He was supported by Josef Suk and with his help was able to found a microtonal department of teaching and research at the Prague Conservatory in 1924. In 1923-1948 he worked first as a instructor, later (since 1936) as professor at the Prague Conservatory. During theWW II . was Hába endangered byNazis , because he tried to help hisjewish pupils [Vysloužil, p. 169] . After the war he was persecuted also by communists. He died in Prague in 1973.He also commissioned quarter and sixth tone instruments such as trumpets, clarinets and pianos.
His best known work is the opera Mother, which received its premiere at the Gärtnerplatztheater in
Munich ,Germany in May 1931; curiously, the cast included the Swiss tenorMax Meili , an early music specialist and primarily a recitalist rather than an opera singer.Notes
External links
* [http://www.xs4all.nl/~huygensf/english/haba.html xs4all.nl: Alois Hába]
* [http://www.tonalsoft.com/monzo/haba/haba-worklist.htm List of works]References
*Vysloužil, Jiří: Hudební slovník pro každého II. Vizovice: Lípa, 2001. ISBN 80-86093-23-9
* [http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Meili-Max.htm Bach Cantatas Website] , Biographical sketch of Max Meili accessed March 10, 2008
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